最新娛樂城描述：：原標題：解析【紐約時報】推出的大學申請文書 【留美學子】 第1665期 【留美學子】前期發表 被名校錄取的學生 不外乎這兩種類型 在申請美國大學時，我們都知道除了硬件條件之外，課外活動、文書都特別重要，每年錄取，都會有很多憑借一封文書就能脫穎而出的故事。但文書的主觀性極強，我們單憑一封文書難以總結出可以用于幫助我們完成文書的技巧。 究竟要怎樣才能寫出富有深度且深受招生官喜愛的優秀文書呢？這篇文章將結合今年《紐約時報》挑選并刊登的4篇關于工作、金錢和階級的美國大學優秀申請文書，每篇文章都有深入分析和建議。 希望這篇文章可以給大家的美本申請一些新的準備思路和角度。 1 標題：‘ The professors’ home was a telescope to how the other (more affluent) half lived 教授的家讓我看到社會中的另一些人怎么生活 作者：Jonathan Ababiy 高中：Blaine High School 目標院校:The University of Minnesota 原文（中英對照） At age 6, I remember the light filled openness of the house, how the whir of my mother’s vacuum floated from room to room. At 9, I remember how I used to lounge on the couch and watch Disney cartoons on the sideways refrigerator of a TV implanted in a small cave in the wall. At 12, I remember family photographs of the Spanish countryside hanging in every room. At 14, I remember vacuuming each foot of carpet in the massive house and folding pastel shirts fresh out of the dryer. 在我六歲的時候，我記得光灑滿了整間屋子，也記得那時母親那吸塵器的呼呼聲是怎樣在所有房間之間回蕩。在我九歲時，我記得我經常懶洋洋的躺在睡椅上，看迪士尼卡通片，電視機有過道內的冰柜那么大，放在墻上的一個山洞大小的內嵌空間里。我還記得，12歲時，每一個房間都掛滿了西班牙鄉村度假的家庭照片。我也記得，14歲時，我在偌大的房子里一點點地給地毯除塵，折疊剛剛烘干的色彩柔和的襯衫。 I loved the house. I loved the way the windows soaked the house with light, a sort of bleach against any gloom. I loved how I could always find a book or magazine on any flat surface. 我愛這棟房子。我喜歡陽光透過窗戶傾灑進來的樣子，仿佛可以掃清所有愁云。我喜歡自己總是可以在任何一個平面上找到一本書或雜志。 But the vacuum my mother used wasn’t ours. We never paid for cable. The photographs weren’t of my family. The carpet I vacuumed I only saw once a week, and the pastel shirts I folded I never wore. The house wasn’t mine. My mother was only the cleaning lady, and I helped. 但是母親用的那臺吸塵器并不是我們的。我們也從來沒有付過有線電視費。照片拍的也不是我們家。我一周只能見到一次自己清理的地毯，我從未穿過自己折疊的色彩柔和的襯衫。那棟房子不是我們的。我母親只是清潔工，而我時不時會幫忙。 My mother and father had come as refugees almost twenty years ago from the country of Moldova. My mother worked numerous odd jobs, but once I was born she decided she needed to do something different. She put an ad in the paper advertising house cleaning, and a couple, both professors, answered. They became her first client, and their house became the bedrock of our sustenance. Economic recessions came and went, but my mother returned every Monday, Friday and occasional Sunday. 在大約20年前，我父母以難民的身份從家鄉摩爾多瓦來到美國。我母親做著大量的零工，但是我一出生，她認為自己需要做些不一樣的工作。她在報紙上刊登了一份提供房屋保潔服務的廣告，然后一對教授夫妻聯系了我們。他們是母親的第一個客戶，他們的房子也成為了我們生存來源的基礎。經濟衰退來了又去，但我母親每逢周一和周五都要回到那里，有時周日也過去。 She spends her days in teal latex gloves, guiding a blue Hoover vacuum over what seems like miles of carpet. All the mirrors she’s cleaned could probably stack up to be a minor Philip Johnson skyscraper. This isn’t new for her. The vacuums and the gloves might be, but the work isn’t. In Moldova, her family grew gherkins and tomatoes. She spent countless hours kneeling in the dirt, growing her vegetables with the care that professors advise their protégés, with kindness and proactivity. Today, the fruits of her labor have been replaced with the suction of her vacuum. 她整日戴著天青色的乳膠手套，操著藍色的胡佛(Hoover)吸塵器，給仿佛有幾英里長的地毯除塵。她擦過的所有鏡子沒準可以堆疊成那種由菲利普·約翰遜(Philip Johnson)打造的亮閃閃的摩天大樓。對她來說這并不新鮮。吸塵器和手套對她來說或許很新奇，但這份工作卻絕非如此。在摩爾多瓦，她的家族種植黃瓜和西紅柿。她花無數個小時跪在泥土里，以教授指導學生的用心程度、以仁慈和積極主動的態度侍弄她的蔬菜。現在，她勞作的蔬果被吸塵器取而代之。 The professors’ home was a telescope to how the other (more affluent) half lived. They were rarely ever home, so I saw their remnants: the lightly crinkled New York Times sprawled on the kitchen table, the overturned, half-opened books in their overflowing personal library, the TV consistently left on the National Geographic channel. I took these remnants as a celebrity-endorsed path to prosperity. I began to check out books from the school library and started reading the news religiously. 教授的房子是我窺視這個社會中另一部分人是如何生活的窗口。他們幾乎不在家，所以我能看見他們生活的痕跡：廚房餐桌上攤著略微皺起的紐約時報，在他們滿當當的私人圖書館里覆在地面上半合半開的書籍，一直停留在國家地理頻道的電視機。我把這些痕跡當做有名人代言的通往富足之路。我開始從學校圖書館翻閱書籍，也開始虔誠的收看新聞。 Their home was a sanctuary for my dreams. It was there I, as a glasses-wearing computer nerd, read about a mythical place called Silicon Valley in Bloomberg Businessweek magazines. It was there, as a son of immigrants, that I read about a young senator named Barack Obama, the child of an immigrant, aspiring to be the president of the United States. The life that I saw through their home showed me that an immigrant could succeed in America, too. Work could be done with one’s hands and with one’s mind. It impressed on me a sort of social capital that I knew could be used in America. The professors left me the elements to their own success, and all my life I’ve been trying to make my own reaction. 他們的房子是我做夢的庇護所。就是在那兒，作為一個戴著眼鏡的電腦怪咖的我，在《彭博商業周刊》看到了一個神奇的名叫硅谷的地方。就是在那兒，作為一個移民之子的我，看到了一位也是移民后代，名叫巴拉克奧巴馬的年輕議員居然夢想成為美國總統。我通過這棟房子看到的生活告訴我，一個移民也可以在美國獲得成功。工作靠努力和智慧就能辦到。它讓我對一種社會資本有了深刻的概念，我知道在美國可以使用這種資本。兩位教授讓我看到了他們取得成功的要素，我這一生都在試圖做出自己的反應。 Ultimately, the suction of the vacuum is what sustains my family. The squeal of her vacuum reminds me why I have the opportunity to drive my squealing car to school. I am where I am today because my mom put an enormous amount of labor into the formula of the American Dream. It’s her blue Hoover vacuums that hold up the framework of my life. Someday, I hope my diploma can hold up the framework of hers. 最后，吸塵器的吸力支撐起了我的家庭。吸塵器的聲響提醒我，為什么有機會能夠開著我咔咔作響的汽車去學校。我之所以成為今天的我，是因為我的母親付出了大量的勞動投入進了美國夢的方程式中。是她的藍色胡佛吸塵器支撐了我生活的架構。某天，我希望我的學識也能夠支撐起她的生活。 點評 從一開始，Jonathan的寫作風格就會讓你提出更多的問題：起初，他似乎在形象地描述自己的家。當你意識到他是在談論他母親為生計而打掃的房子時，這種敘述的轉變會非常有力: 它會挑戰你作為一名讀者的設想。 更重要的是，這并不是一個簡單的白手起家或者戰勝逆境的故事: 作為一個移民的兒子，他設法應對困難的情況，對階級差異作出了更大的評論。他對語言的運用，以及他對自身階級地位的哲學性反思，將這篇文章的立意從“我很貧窮” 提高到了 “我與眾不同的經歷成就了現在的我”。他通過展示他如何受益于在這些教授家中的經歷而進一步加強了這層聯系。 不過，應該說Jonathan的文章很棘手。找到一篇可憐的孩子在父母的刻苦努力下克服困難的文章很容易；除了他追隨他努力工作的母親，這篇文章主要的缺點是他并沒有展示出很多他自己的個性。他可以通過更多地提及他所描述的經歷對他作為一個人的影響，對他行為的改變，而不是僅僅描述他從中獲得的靈感來進一步改善他的文章。 2 標題：Slowly,my mother's gingham apron began to look more likemetal armor 慢慢地，我母親的格子圍裙看起來像是金屬盔甲 作者：Caitlin McCormick 高中：The Gregory School 目標院校:Barnard College 原文（中英對照） When it comes to service workers, as a society we completely disregard the manners instilled in us as toddlers. 當我們提到服務人員的時候，作為一個社會人，我們完全拋棄了年幼時被灌輸的禮儀。 For seventeen years, I have awoken to those workers, to clinking silverware rolled in cloth and porcelain plates removed from the oven in preparation for breakfast service. I memorized the geometry of place mats slid on metal trays, coffee cups turned downward, dirtied cloth napkins disposed on dining tables. 17年來，我一醒來就會注意到這樣的服務人員，注意到準備供應早餐期間裹在餐布里的叮當作響的餐具，以及從烤箱中取出的瓷盤。我會記得餐具墊被放在金屬托盤里的形狀、咖啡杯被倒扣以及弄臟了的布餐巾被撂在餐桌上的樣子。 I knew never to wear pajamas outside in the public courtyard, and years of shushing from my mother informed me not to speak loudly in front of a guest room window. I grew up in the swaddled cacophony of morning chatter between tourists, professors, and videographers. I grew up conditioned in excessive politeness, fitted for making small talk with strangers. 我知道永遠不要穿著睡衣走到外邊的公共庭院里；我母親年復一年發出的噓聲讓我明白，不能在客房的窗前大聲說話。我成長于游客、教授和攝像師晨間壓低聲音閑聊的嘈雜聲中。在長大成人的過程中，我習慣了那種適用于與陌生人寒暄的過度禮貌。 I grew up in a bed and breakfast, in the sticky thickness of the hospitality industry. And for a very long time I hated it. 我是在一個提供住宿和早餐的客棧里，在有著厚重的酒店業氛圍的環境里長大的。有很長一段時間我對此頗為憎惡。 I was late to my own fifth birthday party in the park because a guest arrived five hours late without apology. Following a weeklong stay in which someone specially requested her room be cleaned twice a day, not once did she leave a tip for housekeeping. Small-business scammers came for a stop at the inn several times. Guests stained sheets, clogged toilets, locked themselves out of their rooms, and then demanded a discount. 就因為一位客人不懷歉意地遲到了5個小時，我參加自己在花園舉辦的15歲生日派對也晚到了。某個人住店一周，專門要求其房間每天打掃兩次，卻沒有留過一次整理房間的小費。詐騙小企業的人光顧過幾回。客人把床單弄臟，把廁所弄堵，把自己鎖在房間外，然后要求打折。 There exists between service workers and their customers an inherent imbalance of power:We meet sneers with apologies. At the end of their meal, or stay, or drink, we let patrons determine how much effort their server put into their job. 服務業從業者和客人之間存在天然的權力失衡：我們用道歉應對冷嘲熱諷。我們讓顧客在他們吃喝住宿之后自行決定，服務人員在提供服務上有多用心。 For most of my life I believed my parents were intense masochists for devoting their existences to the least thankful business I know: the very business that taught me how to discern imbalances of power. Soon I recognized this stem of injustice in all sorts of everyday interactions. I came to understand how latent racism, sexism, classism and ableism structure our society — how tipping was only a synonym for “microaggression.” 在生命的大部分時間里，我都覺得我父母是極端的受虐狂，他們把自己的一生獻給了我所知的最不討好的行當：即教會我如何辨別權力失衡的行當。很快，我就在各種日常交往中注意到這種不公平。我開始明白，潛在的種族主義、性別歧視、階級歧視和殘障歧視如何充斥我們的社會——給小費如何只是“微歧視”的一個同義詞。 I became passionate.Sometimes enraged. I stumbled upon nonprofits, foundations, and political campaigns. I canvassed for Senate candidates, phone-banked for grass-roots action groups, served as a board member for the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona, reviewed grant applications for nonprofits and organized events for the nearby children’s hospital. 我變得狂熱起來。有時還很憤怒。因為偶然的機緣，我加入了非營利組織、基金會和政治運動。我給參議員候選人拉票，給草根行動團體接聽電話，擔任南亞利桑那州女性基金會(Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona)的董事會成員，審核非營利組織的經費申請，還為附近的兒童醫院組織活動。 I devoted my time to the raw grit of helping people, and in the process I fell irrevocably in love with a new type of service: public service. At the same time, I worked midnight Black Friday retail shifts and scraped vomit off linoleum. When I brought home my first W-2, I had never seen my parents so proud. 我把自己的時間投入到幫助別人的歷練之中，在這個過程中，我義無反顧地愛上了一種新型的服務：公共服務。與此同時，我也做著黑色星期五的夜班零售工作，清理油氈毯上的嘔吐物。當我把自己的第一份工資單拿回家時，從沒見父母那么自豪過。 The truth, I recently learned, was that not all service is created equal. Seeing guests scream at my parents over a late airport taxi still sickens me even as I spend hours a week as a volunteer. But I was taught all work is noble, especially the work we do for others.Slowly, my mother’s gingham apron began to look more like metal armor. I learned how to worship my parents’ gift for attentive listening, easily hearing the things guests were incapable of asking for — not sugar with their tea, but somebody to talk with while they waited for a conference call. I envied their ability to wear the role of self-assured host like a second skin, capable of tolerating any type of cruelty with a smile. 我最近發現的事實是，并非所有的服務都是天生平等的。看到客人因為接機出租車遲到而對我的父母大叫大嚷，仍然讓我感到厭惡，盡管我每周也會花數小時時間做志愿者。但我從中學到的是，所有的工作都是高貴的，尤其是我們為他人做的工作。慢慢地，我母親的格子布圍裙看起來也更像金屬盔甲了。我知道了如何欣賞父母細心傾聽的天賦，他們很容易就能明白客人沒有準確提出的要求——不是給他們的茶里加糖，而是在他們等待一個電話會議時能有人跟他們聊天。我羨慕他們能那么自然地扮演胸有成竹的東道主角色，能帶著微笑忍受各種惡言。 Most of all, I admired my parents’ continuous trust in humanity to not abuse their help. I realized that learning to serve people looks a lot like learning to trust them. 最重要的是，我欽佩父母一直相信人性，相信人們不會對不起他們提供的幫助。我意識到，學習給人們提供服務和學會相信他們極其相似。 點評 在Caitlin的文章中，她通過敏感的細節描寫敘述了她在酒店服務客人時所遇到的困難，以及她的父母有時不得不忍受的虐待，從而將她自己置于故事的中心。她強調 “工作是高尚的” 的主題，并且使用她母親的圍裙變成盔甲的隱喻來進一步強調她的觀點。 我認為她文章真正成功的地方在于她對體系中的不平等、種族歧視、性別歧視和其他社會問題的描述和認識。她不僅展現出她對這些問題做了功課，而且還把這些問題與自己的生活聯系起來，接著描述了她是如何成為一名志愿者、公共服務人員和積極分子來反抗這些問題的。雖然目前這些話題頗為盛行，但是她做得很好，非常有說服力。 矛盾的是，我認為這篇文章成也蕭何，敗也蕭何：她過于強調她父母在業務成長過程中所遇到的負面經歷，似乎每一個他們遇到的客人都是糟糕的。誠然，這似乎是一個她為了凸顯她后來提出的不平等問題而精心編制的亮點。但是，將她圣賢像的父母和一群糟糕的人放在一起對比似乎有些不和諧。我通常建議學生不要過多地提及他們的父母，因為那樣的文章通常會變成一個關于父母的故事，而不是一個關于學生的故事。 3 標題：My Dell hid my privilege and my Mac hid my financial need 戴爾 or MAC，特權和需求的斗爭 作者：Zöe Sottile 高中：Phillips Academy Andover 目標院校:Columbia University 原文（中英對照） The most exciting part was the laptop. 最讓人興奮的部分是那臺筆記本電腦。 My mom grabbed the thick envelope out of my hands and read off the amenities associated with the Tang Scholarship to Phillips Academy: full tuition for all four years, a free summer trip, a week for me to spend on all the Cheetos and nail polish my heart desired, and finally, a free laptop. 母親從我手上奪過那個厚厚的信奉，念出菲利普斯學院唐氏獎學金能給我帶來的好處：整整四年的學費，一次免費夏季旅行，每周給我20美元，讓我可以買我想要的奇多和指甲油，還有，一臺免費的筆記本電腦。 I had never had a computer of my own before, and to me the prospect symbolized a world of new possibilities. I was the only student from my public middle school I knew to ever go to an elite boarding school, and it felt like being invited into a selective club. My first week at Andover, dazed by its glamour and newness, I fought my way to the financial aid office to pick up the laptop; I sent my mom a photo of me grinning and clutching the cardboard box. Back in my dorm room, I pulled out my prize, a heavy but functional Dell, and marveled at its sleek edges, its astonishing speed. 之前我從來沒有擁有過屬于自己的電腦，對我來說，這象征著一個充滿全新可能性的世界。據我所知，我是我那個公立中學唯一一個去精英寄宿學校上學的學生，這感覺像是受到一個精英俱樂部的邀請。我在安多佛的第一個星期，它的光芒和新奇使我覺得眼花繚亂，我好不容易找到經濟資助辦公室領到了我的筆記本電腦；我還發給我媽一張拿著紙箱咧嘴大笑的照片。回到我的宿舍，我取出我的獎勵，一臺很重但有許多功能的戴爾，并驚嘆于它光滑的線條和驚人的處理速度。 But the love story of my laptop came clamoring to a halt.In the library, as I stumbled to negotiate a space to fit in, I watched my friends each pull out a MacBook. Each was paper-thin and seemingly weightless. And mine, heavy enough to hurt my back and constantly sighing like a tired dog, was distinctly out of place. My laptop, which I had thought was my ticket to the elite world of Andover, actually gave me away as the outsider I was. 但是我對戴爾的愛卻戛然而止。在圖書館，當我笨拙地想找個地方坐下來，我看到我的每個朋友都拿出了一臺MacBook。每一個都薄如紙片，看起來十分輕盈。而我的戴爾呢，立刻顯得格格不入起來，重的好似能拖垮我的背，還像一只累壞的狗那樣不停發出聲響。本來我以為這臺戴爾是我通向安多佛精英世界的入場券，但實際上卻暴露了我外來者的事實。 For a long time, this was the crux of my Andover experience:always an outsider. When I hung out with wealthier friends, I was disoriented by how different their lives were from mine. While they spent summers in Prague or Paris, I spent mine mining the constellation of thrift stores around New Haven. The gap between full-scholarship and full-pay felt insurmountable. 很長一段時間內，這一直是我在安多佛體驗中的一大難題：總是作為一個局外人。當我和比我有錢的朋友出去閑逛，我都能看到他們的生活和我的生活有多不同，這讓我感覺不知所措。當他們整個暑假都在布拉格或者巴黎度假時，我在紐黑文附近的眾多二手商店淘著舊貨。全額獎學金和全自費之間的差距感覺無法跨越。 But I also felt like an outsider going to meetings for the full-scholarship affinity group. My parents attended college and grew up wealthier than I did, giving me cultural capital many of my full-scholarship friends never had access to. Moreover, I’m white and could afford occasional concert tickets or sparkly earrings. The laptop, carried by all full-scholarship students and coded with hidden meanings, pivoted my friends’ understandings of me. At home, I grew up middle class, then became the privileged prep school girl. But at Andover, suddenly, I was poor. Trying to reconcile these conflicting identities, I realized how complex and mutable class is. My class is connected to my parents’ income, but it’s also rooted in cultural knowledge and objects that are charged with greater meaning. 但是，就算去參加面向全獎生的活動，我依舊感覺自己像個局外人。我的父母上過大學，他們生長的家庭條件也比我好，這給了我一些和我一樣拿全額獎學金的朋友從來沒有的文化資本。此外，我是個白人，能夠負擔偶爾去聽演唱會和買亮閃閃耳飾的費用。全獎生都擁有的那臺被賦予隱含意義的戴爾筆記本，支撐起了我朋友對我的解讀。在家里，我生長于中產階級，然后還成為了幸運的預科生。但是在安多佛，突然我就變成了窮人。在試圖協調這些矛盾的身份定位過程中，我意識到了，階級這個東西是如何的復雜易變。我的階級和我父母的收入有關，但它也根植于文化知識和那些被賦予了更宏大意義的事物中。 Which brings me back to the laptop: in the middle of my senior fall, my exhausted Dell broke and I couldn’t afford another. When I managed to borrow a slim Mac from my school, I felt the walls around me reorient. I hoped that now I wouldn’t have to think about the electric web of privilege and power every time I sent an email. Instead, I felt a new anxiety: I worried when I sat in the magnificent dining hall with my beautiful computer thatI had lost an important part of my identity. 后來發生了一件事又讓我的注意力回到這臺筆記本：在高三的秋天，我那近乎報廢的戴爾終于用壞了，我又沒錢再賣一臺。當我成功從學校借了一臺輕薄的Mac筆記本，我感覺我周圍的世界再次改變了。我那時希望，今后每當我發電郵時，不需要去考慮那張特權和權力的電子網。但是，我卻感到了一種新的焦慮：我擔心，當我帶著我漂亮的筆記本坐在華麗的食堂時，我就已經丟失了自己身份的一個重要部分。 When I started at Andover, these constant dueling tensions felt like a trap: like I would never be comfortable anywhere. (The school sensed it too, and all full-financial aid students now receive MacBooks.) But maybe it’s the opposite of a trap. Maybe I’m culturally ambidextrous, as comfortable introducing a speaker on the stage of Andover’s century-old chapel as getting my nose pierced in a tattoo parlor in New Haven. My hyperawareness of how my Dell hid my privilege and how my Mac hid my financial needpushed me to be aware of what complicated stories were hiding behind my classmates’ seemingly simple facades. I am a full-scholarship student who benefits from cultural, socioeconomic and racial privilege: my story isn’t easy, but it’s still mine. 當我剛到安多佛時，這些不停歇的緊張狀態就像一個陷阱：待在哪里都無法自在（學校也有同感，現在所有全獎生拿到的都是MacBook了。）但是可能這又走向了完全不同的另一種陷阱。或許我在文化身份上是自由靈活的，站在安多佛百年禮堂的舞臺介紹演講者時，或在紐黑文的紋身店穿鼻環，我都是舒服自在的。我清楚的知道，戴爾筆記本掩蓋了我的特權，Mac則掩蓋了我的財務需要，這迫使我意識到，那掩藏在同學看起來簡單的外表下，所存在的復雜故事。我是個受益于文化、社會經濟和種族特權的全獎生：我的故事并不容易，但它依舊是我自己的故事。 點評 這是另一篇著重于不平等和階級差異問題的文章。Zöe令人信服地展示了她在精英私立學校發現并接受自己階級地位的個人斗爭過程。她的關鍵轉變體現在 “試圖調和這些沖突的身份，我意識到階級是多么的復雜和可變”。她并沒有逃避現實，而是特別出色地帶領讀者一起踏上了她對自身階級認知的旅途。她對自身處境感到自豪的結論尤為突出。 她運用的一個重要的寫作技巧是主題重現。無論是戴爾還是蘋果電腦的反復出現都在不經意間將讀者與早期的故事情節聯系起來，并幫助讀者從中聯想到不平等的概念。這是一種非常有用的文學技巧，在這里尤為實用。 然而，這篇文章的弱點是作者過于強調她的社會和經濟地位，而不是注重于她的個人技能或者成長。除了她的階級認知外，她似乎并沒有學到任何東西。事實上，她以擁有和她朋友不同的電腦型號來描述她青年時代的成見似乎顯得有些幼稚。在這里，這是一個她提高自己 “階級認知” 立意的要點，但這也很容易被誤解為簡單的青少年嫉妒心理。但是，考慮到這個主題，這篇文章還是令人印象深刻的。 4 標題：On one side of me, nature is a hobby. On the other, it is a way of life 其中一個我覺得，大自然是一種興趣愛好。 另一個我覺得，它是一種生活方式。 作者：Tillena Trebon 高中：Northland Preparatory Academy 目標院校:The University of Oregon 原文（中英對照） I live on the edge. 我生活在邊緣地帶。 I live at the place where trees curl into bushes to escape the wind. My home is the slippery place between the suburbs and stone houses and hogans. 我生活在樹木為躲避風的侵蝕而蜷縮成灌木的地方。我的家是郊區之間，錯綜復雜的石屋和木屋中間的光滑地。 I see the evolution of the telephone poles as I leave the reservation, having traveled with my mom for her work. The telephone poles on the reservation are crooked and tilted with wire clumsily strung between them. As I enter Flagstaff, my home, the poles begin to stand up straight. On one side of me, nature is a hobby. On the other, it is a way of life. 當我離開保留地，陪母親去上班時，我看到了電線桿的改變。保留地的電線桿歪歪斜斜，電線雜亂地繞在其中。當我回家，進入弗拉格絲塔夫，電線桿變得向上豎起。其中一個我覺得，大自然是一種興趣愛好。另一個我覺得，它是一種生活方式。 I live between a suburban land of plenty and a rural land of scarcity, where endless skies and pallid grass merge with apartment complexes and outdoor malls. 我生活在郊區的土地富余和農村的土地匱乏之間。這里，一望無際的天空和一成不變的草地，與公寓建筑和露天購物中心融為一體。 I balance on the edge of drought. 我在旱災的邊緣上保持平衡。 In the summers, when the rain doesn’t come, my father’s truck kicks dust into the air. A layer of earthy powder settles over the wildflowers and the grass. The stale ground sparks ferocious wildfires. Smoke soars into the air like a flare from a boat lost at sea. Everyone prays for rain. We fear that each drop of water is the last. We fear an invasion of the desert that stretches around Phoenix. We fear a heat that shrivels the trees, turns them to cactuses. 夏天不下雨的時候，父親的卡車激起一地的塵土。野花和草地上覆蓋了一層灰塵。死氣沉沉的大地激起了劇烈的野火。煙霧沖進空氣中，就像迷航的船只發出的求救火焰。每個人都渴求雨水的來臨。我們害怕每一個雨滴都是最后一滴。我們害怕菲尼克斯周圍的沙漠繼續入侵。我們害怕熱浪使得樹木枯萎，將它們變成仙人掌。 I exist at the epicenter of political discourse.Fierce liberalism swells against staunch conservatism in the hallways of my high school and on the streets of the downtown. 我生存在政治敘事的中心。咄咄逼人的自由主義和堅定的保守主義互相對立，這種對立存在于我高中的走廊里，也存在于鬧市區的大街上。 When the air is warm, the shops and restaurants open their doors. Professionals in suits mingle with musicians and artists sporting dreadlocks and ripped jeans. Together, they lament the drought, marvel at the brevity of the ski season. 當天氣暖和的時候，商店和餐館紛紛開門營業。身穿套裝的專業人士和蓄著臟辮、穿著破爛牛仔褲的音樂家、藝術家相互交談。他們一起，抱怨旱災，感慨于滑雪季的匆匆過去。 I live on the edge of an urban and rural existence. 我生活在城市和農村共存的邊緣。 At my mother’s house, we ride bikes down paved streets. We play catch with the neighbor kids. We wage war with water guns. 在我母親的房子里，我們騎著自行車途徑平整的道路。我們和鄰居家的小孩玩接球游戲。我們一起用水槍模擬打仗。 At my father’s house, we haul water. We feed the horses and chickens. We chase the fox away from the chicken coop. We watch deer grazing, not ten yards away. We turn the soil in the garden. When the rain and the soil and the sun and the plants give birth to fruit, we eat it straight from the vines. 在我父親的房子里，我們取水。我們喂馬和雞。我們把狐貍從雞籠趕走。我們在十碼外的地方看著野鹿吃草。我們在花園里松土。當雨水、土壤、陽光和植物一起孕育出果實，我們直接從藤曼上摘下、品嘗。 Traditional Navajo weaving and prints of Picasso’s paintings adorn the walls of both homes. 我父母房子的墻上都裝飾著傳統的納瓦霍織物和畢加索的畫作印刷品。 I straddle the innocence of my youth and the mystery of my adult life. That, too, is a precipice. I know I must leap into adulthood and leave the balancing act of Flagstaff life behind. Still, I belong at the place where opposites merge in a lumpy heap of beautiful contradictions.I crave the experiences only found at the edge. As I dive into adulthood, into college, I hope that I can find a new place that fosters diversity in all its forms, a new edge upon which I can learn to balance. 我跨過了年幼無知，也經歷著充滿神秘的成人生活。這也是一種困境。我知道我必須趕緊融入成年世界，把幼年平衡弗拉格斯塔夫生活的行為拋到身后。但，我依然屬于那個，相反的人和事互相融合出一種美好矛盾感的地方。我渴望只在邊緣地才能找到的體驗。當我步入成年，上了大學，我希望我能找到一個鼓勵各種形態多樣性的新地方，一個我能學著平衡的新的邊緣。 點評 雖然Tillena的文章依然是關于金錢、階級或權利的，但是她的文章比之前的文章更具有文學性和哲理。然而，盡管這是一篇非常好的作文，我認為它是這里所有文章中最薄弱的。 這篇文章主要的優勢在于作者在整篇文章中穿插的小片段：她描述了她學校的走廊，她在那里討論過的政治，以及她生活的哲學方面。她還描述了她家中的藝術作品，讓圖像顯而易見。這是一種非常有效的寫作技巧：她利用這些情節和圖像來加強她關于工作、階級以及身份的中心論點。 但是，我覺得她的文章是非常脫節的：讀者很難從中了解到它的主題，以及作者想傳達的關于自己的信息。很明顯，作者在對政治、金錢、工作和階級之間的聯系作出評價，但這是為什么呢？這篇更具有文學性的文章并沒有有效地告訴讀者作者對于自己的表達，這是這篇文章最大的缺陷。 然而，作者的確有很好的英語文學素養，同時她也對階級和不平等問題有著清晰的認識。 【申請季】系列，每周持續推出，祝福留美學子心想事成！ 【留美學子】已發1664期 【留美學子】前期發表 被名校錄取的學生 不外乎這兩種類型 近期海外名家獨一無二的【穿越訪談】系列 其中 4/16 橫跨日中美30年: 文化教育二代間的彷徨與發現